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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (May 8):
Question:
Recently, some elderly persons have relayed to me that the private clinics which they had been attending for medical consultation have withdrawn from the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (the Scheme), rendering them unable to benefit from the Scheme when attending those clinics. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of clinics which joined and withdrew from the Scheme each year since its implementation (broken down by type of healthcare profession);
(b) of the current number of private clinics in the territory which have not joined the Scheme;
(c) of the current average and the longest time taken for reimbursement of health care vouchers to the clinics participating in the Scheme;
(d) whether the authorities will streamline the administrative procedures that service providers have to deal with and shorten the time required for reimbursement of health care vouchers, so as to attract more service providers to join the Scheme; and
(e) given that, in reply to a question of this Council on the 2013-2014 Estimates of Expenditure, the authorities have indicated that to encourage the participation of service providers, they "have issued letters to service providers, private hospitals and medical organisations informing them of the latest increase in annual voucher value as well as conducting briefings to service providers where appropriate", of (i) the number of letters issued to those service providers which have not yet joined the Scheme, as well as (ii) the number of briefings conducted last year and (iii) the number of briefings to be conducted next year for them?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che is as follows:
(a) As at the end of 2012, a total of 3 627 qualified healthcare service providers had enrolled in the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (the Scheme), involving 4 945 places of practice (as a service provider can register more than one place of practice for accepting use of Health Care Vouchers). The number of enrolled healthcare service providers and their places of practice broken down by healthcare professions are at Appendix A.
As at the end of 2012, 336 enrolled healthcare service providers withdrew from the Scheme. The number of service providers withdrawn from the Scheme broken down by year and healthcare professions is at Appendix B.
(b) The Department of Health (DH) does not have information concerning the number of private clinics in Hong Kong. Hence, we do not have the number of private clinics which have not participated in the Scheme.
(c) Under the current arrangements, DH will reimburse enrolled healthcare service providers or associated organisations of their voucher claims within 30 days after the last date of each month.
(d) To facilitate utilisation of vouchers by elders and service providers, the Government has adopted appropriate measures to streamline procedures of making voucher claims. For instance, Smart Identity Card Reader was introduced in 2010 to shorten the time for inputting information of elders to the eHealth System and to reduce errors. We will continue to review and enhance the eHealth System on a regular basis, having regard to the views of enrolled service providers and other stakeholders.
(e) In December 2012, DH wrote to participating healthcare service providers, informing them of the increase of the voucher amount to $1,000 starting from 2013 and other enhancement measures. As for service providers which have not enrolled in the Scheme, DH has informed them of the latest development of the Scheme and encouraged their participation through relevant professional bodies.
Since the Scheme launch in 2009, DH has been promoting and explaining the Scheme to healthcare professionals through the large scale annual briefing sessions of Vaccination Schemes. Moreover, DH has taken the initiative to visit clinics and places of practice of service providers in individual districts, urging them to participate in the Scheme and encouraging elders to use the vouchers. DH will, in collaboration with various stakeholders, continue to introduce the Scheme to service providers of all relevant healthcare professions, for examples, promoting the Scheme in the latest Newsletter from the Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong and at the briefing sessions organised for medical practitioners providing primary care services.
Ends/Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:25
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